Immutable
by dracohawk13
Summary: Years before team RWBY's adventures at Beacon began, other teens were forging their own paths. Friends, training, monsters... these are things every aspiring hunter expects to deal with. However, sinister plots are already afoot, and those who will eventually become Beacon's elusive third years are about to learn the hard way that the real monsters aren't grimm.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer - I do not own RWBY. That should be obvious, this is a fanfiction site. This story is written to be a parallel to existing canon. It will not interfere with the main story in an undue manner, even when it catches up. Or at least it shouldn't, within reason..._

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 _"None of them should have been allowed to set foot in Beacon."_

 _"And yet they have."_

 _"It's not too late, Ozpin. Just send them home. No good will come of this."_

 _"Perhaps. Then again, nothing worthwhile is ever gained without a little risk."_

 _"Professor... this is irresponsible."_

 _"Indulge me just this once, my dear Glynda. I've seen a lot in my lifetime, enough to know when taking a chance is really more of a sure thing."_

 _"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"_

 _"That anyone, given the proper training and motivation, can be a hero. And that sometimes, that's exactly what they needed all along."_

* * *

Miles above the Emerald Forest, a bullhead circled slowly.

Inside over a dozen hopeful students shuffled nervously, none yet out of their teens, and each carrying their own personal lethal weapon; some simple and others more absurd.

These were the prospective students of Beacon, a combat academy for budding Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they were about to receive their first real test.  
Aside from rumors, none of them had a clue what it was.

Separated from the pilot by a steel door, the students were lined up in a row facing Glynda Goodwitch, professional Huntress and the Teacher assigned to brief them for the task they were about to undertake. She did not look impressed.

Miss Goodwitch adjusted her spectacles and examined the motley crew before her.

"You may have heard that huntsmen and huntresses in Beacon and beyond typically operate in teams."

She began to pace up and down past each fidgeting teen.

"Allow me to quash any further speculation. You will each be put into teams. Today."

Pausing to glare at a blonde teen who was not so subtly adjusting his weapon's scope, Glynda waited patiently while he scrambled to sling it back across his back, smiling sheepishly.

"Since your teams are going to be with you for your duration of your studies at Beacon and beyond, this is an important process.  
So naturally, once the test commences, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next three years. Minimum."

A low rumble of mutterings broke out at this declaration.

At the furthest edge of the lined up hunters a red head scowled, obviously resisting the temptation to speak up against this ridiculous rule.

Instead, he cast a glance across the rest of the line, seeing annoyed, disconcerted, even frightened faces. Obviously being forced into working with someone you might not get along with was not a popular concept.

Pausing to regard an unusual reaction in the form of a shorter, purple haired boy in a flak jacket who in contrast to those around him was conspicuously silent, instead sporting a frown and regarding Goodwitch in a calculating manner, the red head straightened up and waited for the clamor to die down.

"There is a smaller number of you than usual, so it may be harder to find your respective partner than it normally would. That being said, these woods are currently experiencing the highest level of grim activity in a decade, so it is in your best interests to pair up as quickly as possible." Glynda continued.

Some faces blanched at the idea that they might be torn apart before they even found anyone at all.

Heedless to the discomfort she had caused, Glynda plowed on.

"The objective of this test is to pair up, then find the temple hidden somewhere in the forest. There you will find a set of relics. Each pair is to retrieve a single relic between them, then return to the extraction point at the cliffs.

Do not hesitate to exterminate any grimm you encounter, or you may well die." She pointedly glanced at the blonde, who was looking more antsy by the second.

"Any questions?"

A tan boy in a tacky grey hoodie raised his hand.

"So... what do you mean by 'landing strategy' exactly...?"

Affixing the boy with a piercing stare that caused him to shrink away, Glynda casually adjusted her glasses with a palm.

"We're looking into installing personal catapults along the clifftops, but that's a year out at best..."

The boy opened his mouth as though to remark that that hadn't answered his question at all.

"So I'm afraid your stop is right here."

The tan boy blinked owlishly. "...Huh?"

"Good luck." She said ominously, pulling open the door to the cockpit, stepping in, and shutting it behind her.

With that, the ramp lowered, and the howling wind drowned out everything else.

Then the bullhead tilted upward sharply, and suddenly everyone was falling.

* * *

Free fall was not a comfortable feeling, Carmine concluded.

Having been unceremoniously dumped out the side of the bullhead only to discover to his derision that they were more than a little bit high up, the red head was not pleased with the feeling in his gut that falling to his death was causing.

He wasn't screaming aloud, but his face was contorted all the same.

As he plummeted faster and faster, Carmine squinted around to try keep track of the other falling students, much more calmly than he felt.

It wasn't easy with the whipping wind making his eyes water, but he spotted a few others further ahead of him, all closer to the ground.

A flash caught his eye - one of the students had discharged his weapon towards the ground.

Another flash, then another.

Blinking the moisture out of his eyes, Carmine was able to recognize the perpetrator as the hoodie wearing guy who had spoken up on the bullhead.

Clearly he was using the recoil of his weapon to slow his descent and angle towards a more favorable landing spot.

The bright flashes were unusual though for a weapon of that size- wait, was that a railgun?

Then his attention was drawn towards something even stranger.  
Up ahead, a girl in a green combat skirt was... stepping on air?

Every so often, the teen would abruptly slow and change course, each time kicking off of nothing and somehow manipulating her descent.

'Now that has to be cheating somehow...' he thought, but on closer inspection he spotted something appearing beneath her feet. A semblance of some kind so.

Looking around, he realized he had lost track of everyone else. Moreover, he was going to shoot past those two in moments since he had much less control over the speed he was dropping at.

Gritting his teeth, Carmine noticed he was already getting a little too close for comfort to the treeline.

Deciding it was now or never, he tucked in his arms and legs and sped up significantly, shooting through the foliage like a rocket.

* * *

Further back and still in the air, Baz had fallen behind just about everyone.

Some might consider this a disadvantage, but to Baz this was a fortunate position to be in.

The first thing he did was spread his limbs apart to stabilize his descent, slowing somewhat.

Next, he began to survey his surroundings.

Eyes glowing a pale blue, he took in the location of every falling student, every visible clearing, multiple spots where there were signs of grimm...

Committing what he could to memory, Baz then focused on the task at hand - not becoming a pancake.

He had little doubt that his aura could protect him from an impact at terminal velocity. Once.

However, this was a test. It would be remiss of him not to mitigate any aura loss that he could otherwise avoid, especially this early.

Choosing a particularly leafy canopy, Baz drew his weapon.

A compact SMG loaded with mid caliber dust propelled rounds, Riptide was brought to bear as Baz chose his first target.

He wasn't rally aiming at the treetop that was annihilated by a hail of bullets. Nor was it his intention to send the family of birds roosting in the next target fleeing in panic as it was shredded apart in a shower of splinters.

No, the purpose of these bursts was to utilize the recoil to steer towards his intended landing spot.

Crashing through the leaves, Baz instantly spotted what he was looking for - a heavy set horizontal branch, as wide as the average human body.

Bringing Riptide around in an arc, the SMG unfolded from the lower grip to snap into place and extend a sleek steel sword-breaker.

Ignoring the twigs and branches pinging off his aura, Baz swung Riptide into the branch, hooking into it and bringing his fall to almost an abrupt halt, using the momentum to swing forward and up a little bit, yanking Riptide loose, before dropping to the ground in a roll.

Springing to his feet, Baz cautiously surveyed his surroundings, before relaxing somewhat.

Eyes fading to a darker blue, he brushed himself off and checked his scroll.

He'd used barely any aura on that maneuver.

'Good. Now to look for-'

Baz's train of thought was cut off abruptly as he heard a not so distant boom.

It didn't take a genius to figure out where it had come from either, as a shower of dust hung in the air directly ahead of him.

Taking a moment to consider ignoring the event and skirting around it entirely, he sighed and picked up a light run in the direction of what hopefully wasn't a student slammed face first into the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Carmine straightened up, dusting himself off and regarding his handiwork.  
It was only a small crater. Could have been worse.

Crimson red hair stood in clumped spikes over an undercut hairstyle, and despite his concern his black coat hung mostly spotless from his otherwise painfully average frame. The black boots and khaki cargo pants were much more functional than the rest of his getup, though the pockets were mostly empty and the boots would be clearly fresh off the shelf were it not for the thin layer of dirt now coating the soles.

Under his coat and hanging above a red shirt (clearly bought from a gift shop if the black Beacon Academy text was anything to go by) an ornate pendant hung, somewhat out of place with the rest of the teen's trendy look.

Stretching his arms above his head and arcing his back to limber up for the trek ahead and to test if he hadn't strained anything with his improvised landing, Carmine flexed his fingers in the air, his brown eyes peering through gloved hands at the sun beating down from above. If he were someone else he might be concerned about sunburn with the lack of shade out here, but his olive skin was well accustomed to handling longer direct exposure from his childhood in the tundra. Flexing his gloved hands, Carmine lowered his arms once more and surveyed his surroundings, grasping his weapon by he hilt.  
His right hand glove was finger-less, but the left was not. Visible under his coat sleeves was a sort of white tape covering both arms all the way to the wrist.

Moments before he hit the ground he had briefly tapped into his semblance, lashing out at the earth beneath with an burst of crimson aura.  
It left a bad taste in his mouth to be forced to rely on it at all, much less for something as minor as a 'landing strategy', but he couldn't deny it had been effective, the opposing force effectively halting his momentum abruptly.

It felt like his aura had taken a bit of a dent from the aftermath of the rather violent solution, but at least it had worked. Sort of.

Striding forth with more confidence than he felt, Carmine drew his weapon from its hip holster; an unusually thick short sword with a horizontal inner handle. Cloudburst.

A quick glance around reaffirmed his suspicions that he was very much alone, but how long that would last when he had made such an unsubtle entry into the forest was anyone's guess...  
And while he would be more than happy to attract the attention of a potential partner, it was far more likely that it would be-

A rustling sound gave him pause, and he stared at a set of bushes hoping to see a frazzled teenager emerging from it to be his friend.

"... Hello?"

It wasn't.

* * *

Baz hurried through the undergrowth, brushing foliage aside as he approached the occasional sound of gunfire.

Although his taupe brown shirt and everglade green flak jacket were certainly practical wear for a forest excursion, his dark purple hair made him stand out somewhat more than he was comfortable with admitting.  
Unfortunately, he hadn't found a comfortable hat on time for the test, and while it still bothered him he had pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

Deep blue eyes scoured tirelessly across his surroundings despite his perpetual tired frown, drinking in every detail and committing it to memory.

Loose fitting combats and steel toed boots allowed him to cut through denser foliage without having to rely on his aura to keep his pale skin from being scratched up as he pushed onward towards the sounds of combat.

Eyes briefly glowing a pale blue, he corrected his course to avoid straying too close to a skulking taijitu he detected coiled around a particularly dense great oak tree, and even escaped the undergrowth by stepping out onto a dirt path that would take him fairly close to the skirmish.

Bringing Riptide's ranged form to bear, Baz breached the treeline of the clearing in time to see a pack of beowolves swarming a red headed student. He was doing good job of fending them off with swift and violent swings of his sword, but wasn't doing much to thin their numbers as he was constantly prevented from pressing the advantage on any single foe.

Without a word, Baz opened fire, picking one off immediately before they even noticed his presence and seriously injuring another as it turned around. Before the injured grimm could move an inch, the red head pounced, slicing it in twain and still having time to avoid its pack-mate's ravenous maw.

Another hail of rounds ripped into the offending grimm's pelt, causing it to flinch and making it easy for Carmine to run it through.

Ripping Cloudburst free as the grimm collapsed, already beginning to dissolve into a haze of black smoke, Carmine noticed that the remaining two beowolves had broken away to charge at his newfound comrade.

Breaking into a sprint to catch up, Carmine soon found himself skidding to a halt in surprise as a burst of rounds felled one grimm before it ever reached the teen at all, and without pause Baz unfolded his sword-breaker and stepped sharply to the left, avoiding the last beowolf's desperate leap altogether and catching it by the throat with the serrated blade, decapitating it with a sharp pull and leaving the lifeless torso to collapse in a dissolving heap.

Regarding his handiwork for only a moment, Baz folded Riptide back up before regarding Carmine with a calculating expression, advancing towards him until he was but mere feet away.

"Uh, hi?" Carmine murmured meekly, trying to maintain eye contact.

"Paired or unpaired?" Baz demanded, expression unchanging and unnerving.

"... sorry, what?" Carmine asked in confusion.

Baz frowned. "Are you yet paired with another student, or not?"

Carmine's eyes widened in understanding. "Ah, uh, y-yeah! I mean, no. I mean..." he stammered.

This was much harder than he had anticipated.

Pausing for a moment even as Baz patiently waited for him to get on with it, Carmine took a deep breath.

"No, I'm not paired yet. You're the first one I've seen."

Baz nodded slowly. "Understood." Slinging his weapon across his back, Baz held out a hand.

"Byzantine Caladir. Call me Baz." He declared.

Carmine only hesitated for a moment before taking it firmly.

"Carmine Borealis. Er, you can just call me Carmine."

* * *

Elsewhere, a teen in green camo trudged through the forest muttering to himself, already growing irritable.  
Unlike Baz, this one wore his green and brown jacket loosely open over a black tank top, a rifle slung over his back clipped on to a buckled belt.  
Fair skin was framed by blonde hair hanging loosely down his neck, his fringe parted down the middle and framing forest green eyes.  
Eyes that were currently growing frantic in their movement as he searched for literally any signs of life.

It has not been long since his landing, but he had yet to run into a single grimm, let alone another student.  
And to make matters worse...

Lincoln paused and glared at a broken branch on the ground, knowing for certain that it was lying exactly where he had thrown it ten minutes ago.

He was going in circles.

"... How?!"

Rubbing his temples in frustration, he decided to take a different approach.

Striding over to a promising looking tree, he began to clamber up it one branch at a time. Breaching the canopy took a couple of minutes, but when he did he drew his weapon from his back; SharpShooter in its sniper form.  
Peering down the scope, he scanned the treetops for movement. Anything would do really, at least to make it feel like he was making some sort of progress at all.

Shifting to get a better view in another direction, Lincoln accidentally snapped a twig off the branch he was perched on, dropping it into the forest below. There was silence for a moment as he peered at the horizon.

"What are you doing?"

Lincoln snatched at the branches to stop himself from toppling out of the tree as he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Glaring back down into the forest below he could make out a stoic looking teen staring up at him from the base of the tree with piercing yellow eyes.

Although he was wearing a brown hooded jacket, the hood was down, and from underneath his brown hair Lincoln could see a pair of short twisted horns poking out.

'A faunus?' He thought. Lincoln hadn't met many in person before. There hadn't been any in his classes in Signal, at least none that he'd known of.

"Oh, you know, admiring the view..." Lincoln quipped sarcastically.

Clearly unimpressed with this answer, the faunus began to walk away.

"Wait, hold on, I was only kidding!" Lincoln spluttered desperately, scrambling to get down the tree without falling flat on his face.  
"Please don't leave me!"

* * *

"Are you sure this is the way?" Carmine asked suspiciously, peering at his strange partner with narrowed eyes.

"Definitely." Baz answered with a single word, as he had done multiple times over the past twenty minutes.

"... Share your logic with me again?" Carmine tried not to whine, but he was already getting bored.  
Aside from the beowolves from before, they had yet to run into anything or anyone... and he didn't even really know what they were looking for either.

Baz sighed to himself, but complied nonetheless. "This forest is vast, too vast to search its entirety in a timely manner for any kind of test.  
Therefore, the goal must be in a location easily distinguishable from the rest of the forest. This narrows down the possibilities fairly significantly to only a few key locations, most of which are in that-" he gestured off at an angle "-direction. However, of those locations, very few showed any signs of recent human activity, whereas the ones in this direction-" he jabbed straight forward "-do. And since the moderators for this test would no doubt have had to visit the location fairly recently to ensure the 'relics' we're to be retrieving are placed there to begin with..."

"Yeah, ok, I get it, but.." Carmine scratched his head.  
"...How do you know about these places to begin with? Do you have a map or something?"

Baz halted entirely for a moment, staring at him in confusion.  
"What are you talking about? You should have seen it too."

This only confounded Carmine further. "What? When? When did I see-"

He stopped abruptly as he realized.

"The fall...? Is that what you...? No. That's impossible." Carmine waved a hand in denial.  
"There's no way anyone could have figured out that much in free fall."

Baz nodded slightly. "You're not wrong actually, my semblance is to thank for that."  
Showing him a brief flash of light blue in his dark eyes, he elaborated.  
"My semblance, Overload, improves and optimizes sensory input and processing, allowing me to glean such information more efficiently."

"That's... impressive. And it explains a lot." Carmine relented.

"However, I should add that it has nothing to do with memorizing such simple information as the general layout of a forest." Baz contended.  
"Anyone paying attention should have been able to do that much."

Carmine winced as though struck, and lagged behind as his teammate once more marched forth with purpose.  
"... You didn't have to be a jerk about it..." He mumbled, momentarily paranoid that said jerk had still heard him.  
'Sensory input... what a convenient semblance.' he thought jealously.

* * *

Having taken only a moment to become acquainted, Lincoln Merimen and his surly partner, a satyr faunus calling himself Reed Topaz, traipsed through the forest.

The satyr had short buzzed brown hair, from which protruded a pair of short ebony horns. His beige skin seemed calloused and tough in places, as though he was more familiar with hard labor rather than mere combat training.

Piercing yellow eyes narrowed in a sullen stare definitely made him seem unapproachable, and Lincoln couldn't say much for his fashion sense either; a taupe shirt hanging open over a black zip up hoodie, the hood hanging loosely over the shirt. Dark navy jeans and black and white trainers didn't help much either, making him seem more like a regular civilian school student than a hunter in training.

He supposed that the hoodie was so he could hide the horns when he felt like it. Racism wasn't as prevalent here in a place like Beacon, but it was hardly likely to be absent either. Absently he wondered what that must be like, before dismissing the thought. They were in the middle of a test after all, now was hardly the time to get distracted.

Lincoln held SharpShooter aloft, making a show of swinging it around and watching for movement, but Reed seemed unconcerned.  
The satyr's weapons hung loosely at his hips; a pair of wicked looking tonfas.  
A belt around his waist carrying a plethora of cartridges implied that they were most likely firearms of some sort too, which wasn't terribly surprising to the sniper.  
He wondered about the satyr's skill with his unusual weapons, but if it were anything like his choice in attire then Lincoln would be better off concentrating on picking up the slack for both of them.

At first he had attempted to make small talk, but after a few minutes it had become clear that the faunus was not interested in making conversation at all, and he had soon given up.  
Lincoln fervently hoped that he would not be stuck with this potentially dead-weight killjoy for very long after the exam, but for now he was just glad for the company.  
At least with Reed leading they didn't seem to be wandering in circles, the silent teen adept at picking out routes and avoiding attracting undue grimm attention.

Despite Reed's caution however, it wasn't long before they encountered a group of grimm.  
A swarm of creeps mulling about in the bushes took notice of them and charged.

Lincoln immediately opened fire on them, missing only once every three or four shots due to their random movement and trying to rapid fire a sniper while standing.  
Most shots that hit their mark felled the scuttling grimm, and any that didn't slowed them down severely.  
Mere chumps, Lincoln concluded.

Before the few stragglers could reach them, a pair erupted from the earth beneath their feet, and Lincoln leapt back, rifle extending blades on the top and bottom of the length of the barrel, converting into a long-sword.  
A section of the gun barrel snapping out to the side from only inches away from the hand guard, Lincoln pulled the trigger.  
Instead of flying down the length of the weapon and out the end, the round shot out the short diverted barrel segment, the recoil added to Lincoln's swing and cutting clean through the skull of the leaping grimm, killing it instantly.

Turning to engage the other grimm, Lincoln was instead distracted by what he saw.

Tonfas drawn, Reed was a storm of ruthless efficiency, bobbing and weaving between the snarling beasts and striking out again and again with steel and feet. His weapons didn't seem to be doing much damage per hit, but a flurry of blows was more than enough to cave in a creep's rib-cage and leave it writhing on the ground before fading away, and Reed was giving four of them the same treatment without any coming even close to touching him.

A pair of cracks rang out and two more creeps dropped dead.  
The tonfas were guns alright... shotguns in fact, the tips closest to the side handles abruptly discharging buckshot point blank into their unfortunate targets.

The last two must have seen the writing on the wall, because they turned to run for it, but Reed snapped a foot out and kicked one into the other, sending them crashing into a tree.  
On reflex, Lincoln snapped SharpShooter back into rifle form and took a single shot, punching through both and ending their misery.

Reed regarded him with a blank stare, before simply nodding in approval, raising his tonfas to either side, tightening his grip and surprisingly whipping the handles up and down their metal barrels, making a distinct clicking sound and discharging empty casings.

Lincoln restrained the impulse to blurt out the first thing that came to mind, aware that his teammate did not seem to care for idle chatter.  
'Bad-ass'... he lamented.  
Here he was trying to look cool for his first day in Beacon, and instead he found himself jealous of someone that was most definitely not impressed with him.

'... At least I got a competent partner.' He reassured himself, hurrying to catch up with Reed.

* * *

Elsewhere, Baz scowled up at the sky, momentarily certain that someone was having a laugh at his expense.

"This is so boring," Carmine groaned, "why have we not run into *anything* out here? I thought these woods were packed with grimm?"

Baz neglected to inform him that he had been using his semblance on and off for the last half an hour, nor that in that time he had steered them clear of several dozen grimm nests.  
He'd keep that particular detail to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It wasn't long before Carmine followed Baz into a promising looking clearing. A hundred or so feet away lay a monument of sorts, with pedestals arranged throughout, and upon each rested a different figure.

There was also no-one else there.

"Chess pieces? seriously? Those are the relics...? Is this really it?" Carmine wondered aloud in disbelief, looking around suspiciously. "This is too easy."

Baz strode past him without hesitation.  
"It would appear so."

"W-wait!" Carmine reached out to grab him by the jacket, missing when Baz stopped walking, looked over his shoulder and leaned out of the away just enough to avoid it.

"Why?" He demanded impatiently.

"T-that's... this is a test, right? There might be traps!" Carmine faltered. "Shouldn't we be more cautious?"

Baz's expression softened slightly. If anything he looked amused.

"There are no traps." He claimed, sounding certain. "Promise."

Reluctantly, Carmine followed suit as Baz confidently strode up to the pedestals, before pausing briefly to regard each one.

"Any preference?" He asked lightly. It seemed to Carmine that he was suddenly making more of an effort to be friendly.  
Had something changed?

Realizing that he was waiting for an answer, Carmine reached for a piece before hesitating.

"Do you think there's there any difference?" Carmine asked. Maybe that semblance of his could tell, if he hadn't used it already.  
He had a sneaking suspicion the odd teen had been getting a lot of use out of it today.  
It must be pretty reliable if he could be so confident about the apparent lack of traps... but that still didn't sit well with Carmine.  
Tests weren't supposed to be easy after all, and aside from the drop and an encounter with less than a dozen grimm, what then was it they were being tested with?

"Any distinction seems to be purely cosmetic," Baz responded.  
Seeing the look on Carmine's face, he tried to clarify. "So no, not that I can tell."

Nodding, Carmine reached out and snatched up the white knight piece.  
Despite holding it away from his body and closing his eyes for an instant, nothing happened.  
Sighing in relief, Carmine pointedly ignored Baz's scowl.  
It wasn't that he didn't believe him, he was just paranoid is all.

"So... what now?" He asked. "Should we wait and see if anyone else turns up?"

Baz shook his head slowly. "That is most likely pointless. After all, we don't know how this test is graded. It may well be that speed is a factor, in which case it would be in our best interest to return to the school ahead of the rest."

"Right. The school. Which way was that again?" Carmine rubbed his head in embarrassment. He'd all but lost his sense of direction after being dumped out of a bullhead who knows how high up in the air.

Without hesitation, Baz pointed back the way they'd come, but at a slight angle.  
"It's that way."

Carmine shook his head in relief, not even surprised anymore.  
"Well, if you're sure. Let's get going."

Before he could take even a single step, a shrill scream resounded from the forest.

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, Reed Topaz stopped abruptly, startling his comrade as he stood stock still, head cocked to the side as though listening to something.

Clutching his rifle nervously, Lincoln stepped up next to his distracted partner. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Receiving no answer, he waved his hand in front of the satyr's face. "Heeeey, what's up? Cat got your-"

Reed slowly turned to stare at him.

"... tongue?" Lincoln finished halfheartedly. "What? It's a figure of speech!"

Whether Reed even noticed the faux pas or not, he did not acknowledge it in the slightest.

"There was a scream." He grunted, before moving on once more.

For a moment Lincoln did not follow, processing this comment.

"Wait, hold up!" He abruptly rushed forward, grabbing his partner by the shoulder.  
When Reed turned to stare at his hand, Lincoln removed it as though burned, clearing his throat before continuing.

"You said you heard a scream, yeah?" He probed.

"... Yes."

"Ok, well, where was it?"

Reed stared at him like he'd grown an extra head.

Undeterred, Lincoln pressed on. "Which direction, how far away? Any idea?"

Clearly confused, Reed silently pointed. It was some degree away from where they had been heading.

"Then what are you waiting for, let's go!" Lincoln declared, breaking into a jog for about twenty feet before slowing to a halt and looking back.  
Reed had not moved an inch.

"I know you've nothing wrong with those ears of yours, don't make me repeat myself!" Lincoln half joked, growing irritated. What was this guy's problem?

"Why?" Reed asked.

"Sorry?"

"Why are you going that way?"

Growing angry, Lincoln's tone became much more icy. "Well I don't know why we were going THAT way," he spat, jabbing a finger into the forest, "but THIS way", he jabbed again, "there's someone who might need our help."

Lincoln knew he was growing hostile, but he couldn't help it.

"Now I don't know what you think you're here for, but it's a hunter's job to protect people."  
Reed didn't react much, but his eyes widened almost imperceptibly in surprise.

Lincoln pressed on.  
"And yeah, maybe it was nothing, or maybe it'll be resolved long before either of us can get anywhere close. In the end, that doesn't matter."  
He thumped his chest. "Because I'd rather regret failing or jumping uselessly at shadows than not acting at all."

Spinning around, he marched off, declaring loudly, "now if you'll excuse me, I'll be doing the right thing."  
Breaking into a run, Lincoln resisted the temptation to look back and see that his partner was not following him.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Carmine breathed. "Baz, did you-"

"Of course I heard it." Baz snapped, before biting back a comment. "... We should investigate."

"Damn right we should!" Carmine drew Cloudburst, making a beeline in the direction of the scream.

Catching up quickly, Baz added, "This could easily cut into, or outright remove our lead."

"Screw that!" Carmine shouted. "There's no way I'm ignoring a cry for help!"

"... Quite." Baz agreed, though he seemed somewhat put out. Carmine could understand why... after all, his ability had single-handedly propelled them into a comfortable lead. It must be quite frustrating to have to throw that away so quickly.  
Nevertheless, there are always things that are more important.

"Maybe this is part of the test." Baz added.

"Huh? Do you think so?" Carmine shouted, before noticing that Baz was lagging behind.  
Slowing down to let him catch up, Carmine convinced himself that it was safer if they both arrived together anyway.  
Less chance of being overwhelmed alone, or of Baz being set upon by a stray grimm and prevented from catching up.

"Ah, no, that was a joke." Baz deadpanned. "But maybe, who knows?"

Taken aback, Carmine could only laugh hopefully.  
"Maybe!"

That would definitely be better than the alternative.  
Otherwise, someone was probably having a really bad day.

* * *

Cerise Moreau was having a really bad day.  
A really REALLY bad day.

First she was dropped from a stupid height with no warning. Then she lost her weapon trying to soften her fall by catching it on a tree branch, and instead having it ripped out of her hands and dropping into a river.

By the time she surfaced, she couldn't find her damn weapon at all. Her curled brown hair had turned frizzy, and her black cut-offs, pink blouse and white sweater were all soaked, not to mention her maroon knee-high boots squishing while she walked.

Naturally, that's when the grimm started showing up.

At first it was only a few beowolves, which she'd promptly lit on fire.  
But then came the Ursa... and in her panic she'd nearly set the trees ablaze.

Opting to avoid making the situation even worse than it already was by causing an uncontrollable forest fire, Cerise had opted to restrain her semblance and instead turned tail and fled, hoping against hope that she could find her weapon to defend herself, or at least a partner to cover her and help her look.

Instead she'd blundered into a taijitu, which was currently trying to swallow her whole.

Trapped under its heavy tail, squirming to get free and releasing bursts of flame at the looming maw to keep it at bay, whilst painfully aware of her straining aura, Cerise had begun to scream.  
She knew it was more likely that more grimm would hear it than anything else, but she couldn't help it.

Her rational mind was egging her on if anything, insisting that the teachers at Beacon would surely have safety measures in place for a test like this, even if she understood intuitively that begging for help in such a manner would definitely be the same as failing the test outright.  
Sure beats dying though.

Movement caught her eye, and she turned her head just in time to see a white head slithering closer.  
'That's right', she thought, 'these things have two heads... Well, shit.'

Throwing caution to the wind, Cerise grasped the tail atop her legs with both hands, then lit the damn thing on fire.

The taijitu was not at all pleased by this sudden sensation, and recoiled violently, thankfully releasing her rather than flattening her further.

Scrambling to her feet, Cerise broke into a sprint, hobbling somewhat on her strained legs.  
Aura could only do so much unfortunately, but while it was also slowly healing them that meant that the time when she'd out of it, and thus defenseless against the next grimm that looked at her funny, drew ever closer.

As she ran, Cerise passed several confused looking ursas, each of which spotted her and roared in triumph as if finding her again had been their own doing, then gave chase.

"Oh for- Fuck off!" She screamed back at them, not caring who heard her now. Her reputation was surely ruined here already if anyone was watching this.

* * *

Some distance away, Professor Ozpin sat in a fold up chair on the edge of a cliff overlooking the forest.

On the camping table beside him sat a monitor, flicking between multiple inputs of hidden cameras spread throughout the forest before settling on an image of an unarmed girl in pink running screaming away from a pack of ursa. The speakers peaked for a moment before he casually turned the volume down.  
Sitting next to him Glynda had her head in her hand.

Ozpin took a sip of tea.

* * *

Fortunately for Cerise, things were about to take a rather sharp turn.

Tripping on a stray root and letting out a string of curses, Cerise scrambled to her feet just in time to see an angry ursa bearing* down on her.

Or it would have, had the tides not suddenly changed.

A hail of gunfire tore into the ursa's hide, causing it to snarl in pain and stagger away, one paw raised to protect its face.

Then a mop of red hair tackled the beast off its feet entirely, sending it bowling back into its companions right as they caught up.

A hand grasped hers, pulling her to her feet.

"Are you hurt?" Baz inquired, sounding more like he was asking about the weather than someone's well being.

Composing herself, Cerise replied. "No. But I'm almost out of aura, and I lost Hawthorne somewhere in the trees."

Glancing at the group of grimm, she saw the redhead had drawn a sword and was hacking away ineffectively at the ursa's hide, aggravating the whole pack.

"Is he going to be alright?" She asked, somewhat rhetorically.

"Don't worry about him." Baz insisted. "Where did you lose it? Show me."

"I think it was somewhere over here...?" She gestured, breaking into a jog towards where she estimated her fall had taken her.

"Just a minute..." Baz murmured, eyes glowing a pale blue.

"Could you guys maybe get a move on please?" Carmine complained, "this isn't as fun as it looks."

"You could always hit them harder." Baz shouted back, focused on scanning the treetops.

Carmine grit his teeth, dodging another wild swipe and countering with a heavy blow that took the beast off its feet entirely, leaving it sprawled on its back in surprise.

The next one met an even nastier shock, when instead of slashing at its lumbering form, Carmine stabbed forward into its chest, grabbed the inner handle of Cloudburst, and squeezed.

A familiar crack rang out, and Baz didn't even have to look back to know that Carmine had fired his weapon.

What he didn't notice, however, was what affect this had on its form.

Had he not been focused on a singular task, he might have noticed that Cloudburst's bladed edges folded outward, upward and inward violently, much like a taut bow being released, before internally striking a hammer and discharging a pair of high caliber rifle rounds straight into the hapless grimm's chest.

Grunting and staggering back, the ursa was unprepared for the following swing, as instead of drawing back the blade into sword form to reload, Carmine swung it like a great axe over his head in a wide arc and brought it down on its head.

There was a sharp crunch, followed by a whimper, and the ursa collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, then slowly began to dissolve.

The other two were not impressed by this spectacle at all, opting instead to charge him head on simultaneously.

Resisting the urge to shout at Baz again, Carmine instead stepped forward into the charging beasts, swinging Cloudburst's axe form above his head, snapping out the handle further to make it longer, then all at once he swung.

He'd been more daring this time, tapping further into his semblance than he was comfortable with doing, and it showed.  
The very air distorted around Cloudburst as he swung it in a wide arc, the shock-wave powerful enough to floor both of his attackers, bend several trees and fell a loose one in a cloud of dust and leaves.

To his annoyance, both grimm began to get back up.

However, before he could swing again, all hell broke loose.

A storm of bullets engulfed the grimm, both staggering back under the wilting fire.

It appeared Cerise had found her weapon. A rather less subtle one at that, being what amounted to an assault rifle with an axe blade for a stock.

He couldn't deny that it was effective though, as the combination of it and Riptide was enough to fill the air with deadly projectiles.

Noticing Baz had to abruptly stop to reload, Carmine decided to chip in, maneuvering over towards his teammate whilst repeatedly reloading Cloudburst like some sort of bizarre shotgun-bow by grasping its inner handle, pushing it to the base of the axe blade and locking it in place, then drawing it back down until the blades clicked back into sword form.

Cloudburst wasn't really meant for rapid fire - its ranged capability was really more supplemental than an alternative to melee - but its higher caliber rounds hit harder, preventing the grimm from regaining their composure and advancing through the deadly tempest.

It wasn't long before bother dropped to the forest floor, unmoving and riddled with holes, then began to dissipate.  
Only then did Cerise smugly reload Hawthorne.

* * *

* _Pun intended_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As the trio took a moment to reload and reassess their surroundings, a camo clad blonde burst into the clearing before slowing to a halt, hands dropping to his knees as he caught his breath, regarding his curious audience with a frown.

"... Did I miss the action?" he half laughed in embarrassment.

On cue, Baz pivoted on the spot, reaching forth and snatching Carmine by the shoulder and pulling him back as a massive snake head crashed through the canopy, aimed straight for his companion.

"Oh yeah," Cerise remarked, much more calm now that she was armed. "That was a thing."

Bringing Hawthorne's barrel to bear, she and Baz once more opened fire in unison, causing the massive grimm to flinch back, hissing furiously.

Carmine leveled Cloudburst, steeling himself and charging the monstrosity, only to falter as the newcomer shouted something that drew his attention to a second monstrous snake head came arcing around towards him.

A crack rang out and it flinched back briefly, a sniper round ricocheting off its skull. But Carmine's brief hesitation was all it took for the black head to lash out, ignoring the withering volley of gunfire in favor of devouring the closest potential victim.

Surprised, Carmine only barely managed to block the lunging fangs with the flat of his weapon, but the force of the blow took him off his feet, and the taijitu slammed him viciously into tree bark, cracking and splintering the unfortunate obstacle and taking a chunk out of Carmine's aura as he grunted in pain.

He was vaguely aware of his companions shouts and the hissing and flailing of the other head, more concerned with the imminent threat of the bared fangs before him as the black head coiled back once more, preparing to finish him off.

Not keen on taking another hint like that, Carmine pulled himself free of the indented bark, splinters crumbling away as he stood ready, intending on attempting a counter attack.

Not far to his left, Lincoln grit his teeth, swiveling from one head to the other trying to decide which was the better target, before settling on the black head since Carmine was facing it alone. Leveling SharpShooter in a crouch and putting an eye to the scope, he lined up a shot on its head, but was interrupted by a blur whipping by and momentarily obscuring his line of sight.

His mouth dropped open in disbelief and elation as Reed Topaz bolted by at an alarming pace, leaping into the air and dropping like a comet on the black head, cracking his tonfas into it one after the other, firing each time point blank, before latching on to the reeling head, refusing to let go as it furiously flailed back and forth.

A sharp swing upwards threw Reed loose into the air, but he instantly spun midair, reloading both tonfas in sequence before firing them off several times each before the tormented taijitu could follow up.

Baz yelled out a warning as the white head disengaged from its opponents in favor of flanking the falling satyr, but even as the head towards his falling form Reed was able to fire off a tonfa, twisting and turning midair gracefully, avoiding the attack by a hair's breadth, before doing the same for the second head, kicking off it's neck to propel himself further out of reach.

Not once was he touched before he hit the ground, whereupon the taijitu made a fatal mistake.

Too eager to catch its prey before it could escape on foot, the black head slammed headfirst into the ground, narrowly missing again as Reed kicked off the ground and flipped over and above its vulnerable head.

One leg raised as high as it would go, he brought it down in a wicked axe-kick, aura charged to hell if the explosive force was any indication, the hapless grimm's skull caving in like a tin can struck by a sledgehammer.

Flipping back and landing on solid earth before the head had even fallen still, laying flattened in the dirt, Reed trained his threatening gaze on the surviving head, which now seemed torn between avenging its other half or dragging the dead weight away in a hurry to live another day.

Unfortunately for the grimm, its instinct to kill was still more than enough to overpower its instinct to survive. If it had fled, it might have lived for another few seconds at least.

With only one target to focus on, the grimm was promptly engulfed in a devastating storm of gunfire, the rapid fire rounds of Riptide and Hawthorne joined promptly by the staccato of sniper and shotgun fire.

Rather than joining in on this tactic, Carmine had opted for a different approach, planting a foot forward and tapping into his semblance, drawing on as much power as he dared, Cloudburst flickering an ominous red.

Taking a deep breath, Carmine took a run up, leaping into the air towards his target.

For a moment the gunfire fell silent as the shooters cut off their assault, watching the red head descending upon the grimm, its head turning in surprise a moment too late before he swung.

Cloudburst trailed a deadly arc of seething red through the air, severing the white head from its neck in a flash of crimson, the force of the blow causing a squall of air to sweep over the other hunters, flattening grass and kicking up dust.

Landing with in a crouch with Cloudburst over his shoulder, Carmine exhaled and calmly stood up straight as the taijitu's torso crumpled down behind him, its head laying several yards away wreathed in dissolving puffs of black smoke.

Taking only a moment to regard the redhead with respect, Lincoln shouldered his weapon and jogged over to Reed, who had slipped his tonfas back into their belt holsters the moment Carmine had struck the killing blow.

Before the faunus could react, Lincoln pulled him into a hug.

"You came back!" He exclaimed excitedly.

Reed stood rigid, totally taken aback, and it took a moment for Lincoln to notice his reaction and pull away, smiling sheepishly.

"Sorry, not a hugger I take it?"

The faunus took a moment to recompose himself before responding.  
"I didn't leave." Reed said, frowning.

"... Huh?" Lincoln blinked in confusion.

"I said I didn't leave." Reed groused. "You did."

"... Oh. ...OH. Crap. I did, didn't I?" He rubbed his head awkwardly.  
"... You're right. You weren't really talking much, and I didn't even wait for you to respond, I just sort of ran off on you without talking it out..."

Red faced, Lincoln clasped his hands together, bowing slightly forward. "Sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. We're partners after all. Right?" He sounded a little uncertain about that last part, but Reed merely nodded, choosing to remain silent rather than voicing any further concern. Instead he appeared to be deep in thought, which Lincoln took to mean that they were likely at the very least on good terms for now.

"I hate to interrupt this... whatever this is," Cerise gestured grandly, striding over to the pair with her weapon now slung across her back, "but if you two are paired off too then I still have to find some poor sod to be MY partner. Not to mention finding the damn relics, and it's not like we have the first clue where to look for those either."

Pausing briefly and standing a little straighter as if remembering her manners, Cerise took a moment to flare her semblance a little, focusing on drying off her damp clothes before turning to Baz and Carmine in turn, thanking them profusely for helping her out of that awful situation.

"Let's face it, I'd be dead meat if you two didn't find me when you did. Here I am, trying to be something as bad-ass as a huntress and instead I end up being the damsel in distress again. It'd be funny if it weren't so damn depressing."

Choosing not to ask what she meant be 'again' nor acknowledging her somewhat crude manner of speech, which to be fair could be more to do with her being still shaken from her ordeal, Carmine cut in to reassure her before Baz could say something that might further aggravate her wounded ego.

"That's not really being fair," he reasoned, "You were just unlucky is all. It could have happened to anyone! Hell, I don't know how long I'd have lasted without Cloudburst if I were in your position..." Carmine trailed off. That was a bit of a bald faced lie, if he were being honest.  
He knew perfectly well what would likely happen, and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"He's right," Lincoln chimed in, "you've done well for yourself. It's not like hunters typically operate in teams for the fun of it you know!"

Cerise only nodded, her reddened face clearly indicating that the reassurance was doing little to alleviate her sense of shame.

"Right... well at any rate, thank you for your help. All of you. Now if you'll excuse me, I've a relic to find if I want to have any chance of passing this test."

"Ah, about that." Carmine grinned, gesturing for Cerise to wait a moment, before pulling the chess piece from a pocket and holding it aloft in the palm of his hand for all to see.

"... Why do you have a chess piece with you? You do remember this is a test, right?" Lincoln asked

"That's not-" Carmine protested, but Baz promptly cut him off.

"It's the relic." Baz deadpanned. "Yes, really." He raised a brow at all the disbelieving stares.

"It seems someone is fond of their symbolism."

"Wait, so you know where they are...?" Cerise asked excitedly, eyes gleaming with restored hope.

"Yep!" Carmine affirmed. "We can show you the way if you like. All of you." He addressed this Lincoln and Reed as well.

"Well, it may be a test, but it's not like co-operation is against the rules after all." Lincoln smirked.

"All right!" Cerise pumped a fist in the air. "This is gonna be dead easy after all!"

"Ah, I didn't catch your names by the way." Carmine ventured.

* * *

After a round of introductions, the group of five followed Baz's lead back to the temple, where Lincoln promptly snatched up the remaining knight piece before Cerise claimed the white rook, a little disappointed that they hadn't run into any other potential partners on the way.

Carmine noticed absently that one of the bishop pieces was missing. Someone must have been here while they were busy, but it was kind of surprising. They hadn't been gone for very long at all.

"You guys can probably head back," Cerise offered. "I'm probably alright on my own for now, and this seems like a good place to wait for someone to pair with, rather than scouring the whole forest I mean."

Carmine was reluctant to abandon her on her own, but Lincoln took her at her word, saluting cheerfully and leading a bemused Reed back towards the treeline.

Waving goodbye to their temporary ally, Carmine caught up with Baz, noticing the odd look on his face.

"What's up? Is there something wrong?" He pressed.

"... There's nothing." He replied.

"Oh. Ok then." Carmine let it go, halting only when Baz held a hand out to stop him.

"No, I mean there's *nothing*."

"...Come again?" Carmine asked in bewilderment.

Sighing, Baz turned to face him.

"On our way here I've been using my semblance to avoid as many grimm as possible."

Carmine blinked owlishly, before pointing a finger at Baz and spluttering unintelligibly.

"That was YOUR DOING?! That's why that trek was so awkward?!"

"Yes, that was my doing.  
... Awkward?" Baz asked quizzically, but Carmine waved it off.

"Never mind that, what exactly are you saying? What exactly do you mean by 'nothing?'"

Baz was silent for a moment as though considering his words before replying.

"When we first landed in these woods, the grimm population was surprisingly dense. Goodwitch mentioned that their current level is the highest it has been for some time, but with no context for that statement I was unsure of just how many of them to expect.  
If I had not avoided combat in the manner that I did, we would have been fighting near constantly just to get this far."

Carmine blanched, but Baz pressed on.

"Having said that, my real concern is that while there were so many here before... there now appear to be none at all in our immediate vicinity."

"None?" Carmine shrugged, "that's lucky I guess. Why is that a problem."

"You don't understand." Baz insisted. "You are thinking of only as far as you can see. My semblance is capable of detecting a much wider field of view."

Carmine tilted his head slightly. "So you can see real far you mean. How far do you-"

"Two kilometers." Baz interrupted.

Carmine stared.

"Two... two Kilometers? How-?"

"There are no grim within two miles of us, give or take a hundred meters. Not unless they're deliberately hiding, and very few tend to do that unless they're actively stalking someone."

"Hold up, are you saying there's no other students even that far away from here either?" Carmine held his head in frustration, acutely aware of Cerise waiting patiently behind them for a partner that may never be coming."

"No," Baz denied, "that's not what I said. Let me clarify. The further afield I'm trying to discern, the more information I have to sift through as the area gets wider and wider. To keep from overwhelming my head with useless details I tend to filter out any unnecessary data."

Carmine must not have looked like he understood any of that at all, because Baz scowled and rephrased.

"I was only looking for grimm." He stated.

"Oh, okay. Could you look for students next?" Carmine asked excitedly.

"Hold up," Baz held a palm up, quelling Carmine's excitement. "You're missing the bigger picture here. If there aren't any grimm around then the students will have little trouble making their way here, even if it takes a while to find it. The real problem is the grimm."

"I don't understand what you're getting at," Carmine sighed, "surely fewer grimm can only be a good thing, right?"

Baz shook his head slowly. "No. The issue is *why*. There are very few reasons that grimm might evacuate an area en mass in this manner, and if they were merely being killed off I think I'd have noticed something by now. It almost seems as though as we were heading back here they must have begun to retreat in a radial manner away from..." Paling further, were that possible, Baz blinked his eyes once, opening both with a pale blue glow as he started frantically scanning the forest beyond the temple. Then he cursed.

"We need to get Cerise, and we need to get out of here. Now." He began running back towards the puzzled girl, who was watching their altercation from where she leaned against a pedestal picking dirt out of her sleeves.

* * *

"Baz, what are you talking about?" Carmine chased after his frantic partner. "What's going on?"

"They weren't amassing here Carmine. They were FLEEING. Mindless beasts in more concentrated numbers in a wide radius around something bigger, something they instinctively avoid. And for whatever reason, it's heading this way now." Baz elaborated, speaking louder on purpose once they were within earshot of Cerise again.

"What's that?" Cerise questioned.

"There's a grimm coming this way," Baz warned, "and it's big. Too big. The other grimm are avoid it instinctively, but grimm on this scale don't typically move very quickly. Something has this one all riled up, and its smaller brethren have all wisely got the hell out of the way."

Cerise looked skeptical for a moment, unsure whether to take him seriously or not.

"We need to do the same, and fast," he insisted. "We can't fight this."

Abruptly, Carmine staggered, nearly falling flat on his back. His balance had somehow been thrown off... no, the ground was shaking?  
It only lasted for a moment, but a quick glance revealed the other two hadn't fared any better, with Baz clutching a pedestal and Cerise having steadied herself with Hawthorne.

Carmine's blood ran cold as the severity of the situation sank in.  
"He's right." Turning to Cerise, he decided to trust his partner. "We should fall back for now and let the teachers handle this if it gets any closer. The test can wait."

In the distance, he could make out trees flexing unnaturally aside and sending birds flocking into the sky, as though something tremendous was forcing its way through the forest.

"There's no time," Baz insisted. "It's moving too fast. We need to run right now."

Nodding, Carmine and Cerise followed closely behind as the trio fled directly away from the approaching disaster.

* * *

Back on the cliffs, Ozpin had noticed the commotion. He had been too preoccupied with observing the remaining exploring students to immediately take note of the strange behavior of the forest's grimm populace, only growing suspicious when he realized that there were suddenly so few clashing with the examinees, and that the few that he could locate were rather hurriedly moving in the same direction.

By the time he noticed the disturbance in the distance, distracting him away from his camera feeds to stare off at the horizon in concern, a message popped up on his scroll.

Hearing the same alert from Glynda's scroll near simultaneously, there was a moment of silence while they both read the same message.

"An amber alert...? Now?" She muttered, before staring in the direction Ozpin had been looking warily. "How could something like that even be here?"

The huntress whirled on Ozpin. "We need to cancel the test and retrieve the students, immediately." She insisted.

Ozpin didn't respond, staring contemplatively back at the camera feed, eyeing a few students in particular.

"Professor..." Glynda pushed.

"Not yet." Ozpin shook his head. "Have the staff prepare the bullheads for extraction. But don't cancel the test yet."

"You can't be serious." Glynda breathed in disbelief. "Oz, this is way beyond them. All of them. They'll die for nothing."

Ozpin merely stared into the distance once more.

"You might be right." He stood up, gripping his cane tightly in both hands in anticipation. "That's why we're going too. Let's go."


End file.
